Pandoras Box
Pandoras Box sic is the nineteenth story arc in the main canon of EGS. It opened March 10th 2014. __TOC__ Squirrel Prophet The storyline started with a flashback to a discussion Tedd had with his father about making magic public, which happened on January 2nd. Most of the storyline, however, was filled with Grace's dream happening on an unknown later night. She apparently had the same dream for the third time, but always forgot it on waking up. In the dream, an unknown wizard appeared as an emissary from magic itself, with an important message: a warning about the possibility that the magic system of EGS might radically change, and that they might be able to prevent it -- but not the details. In the end of story, the emissary tried to make Grace remember the dream using associations, but when she awoke, she, again, didn't remember anything... SP - Part 2 The second storyline happened on the Friday of the week Elliot asked Ashley out. Ellen was driving Grace to school and talked about the date. They met Diane in school and she overheard it. They also met Rhoda and Grace had a weird feeling about Rhoda's back almost reminding her of something... and a bit later, the same feeling about Justin's back. After school, the story moved to Salty Crackers Comics. Justin and George were already there, then Sarah, Grace and Tedd came... and Tedd had shorter and -- more importantly -- pink hair. George made seemingly insightful comments on Tedd's psychological state and mentioned going through a similar phase, but denied ever having pink hair. The reason they came was a sealed tournament in Magical Gathering, the EGS universe equivalent of the Magic: The Gathering card game. There was a new expansion, featuring vampires and werewolves, and Sarah wanted to build a fun theme deck, which made Larry and Rich complain about fake geek girls. On the other hand, they both took an interest in the (properly geeky) "pink-haired chick" , aka Tedd. A new guy, Luke, showed up and asked Justin about his fight with Dex' fire summon. He used some sort of aura sight to confirm that Justin had a magical mark, and then noticed that Grace also had power but of a different kind (he compared her to a "Shadow Guy" with prehensile tendrils coming out of his head , whom he apparently had met). He left quickly, but after reporting over phone was convinced to return and participate in the tournament as a cover for further investigations. Sarah drew an overpowered rare card that just happened to be a vampire (O.P. Aludrakrala), and had a lengthy internal debate over deck creation choices (featuring vampire-Sarah and werewolf-Sarah), at the end of which we learned that Pandora was watching her from the spirit plane. In the first round, Tedd encountered Larry, who tried to hit on him -- rather unsubtly, and clearly unable to take a hint. Luke met Rich, whose use of slurs angered him enough that he abandoned the original plan of losing quickly -- in order to spend the time getting to know Justin and Grace better -- and instead trounced him soundly. Sarah went up against George, who gave her useful enough advice between the games (the rounds were best two out of three) that she won one. During the second round, Tedd faced Sam, who commented on his name and suggested Tess as a female semi-equivalent, "just in case it does matter" . After winning his match, a confused Tedd talked it over with Grace, who explained concepts like transgender and gender fluid to him. Sarah played against Mr. Tensaided and actually managed to win, and Luke, who had gotten a bye, geeked out with Justin over the Star Wars prequels. Both Sarah and Grace were happy to notice the chemistry between them; George, however, was less than enthused. Luke, mistaking the cause for his grumpiness, decided to check out his aura "just in case" and gets blinded -- due to Tedd, who happened to stand right beside George at the time, a still invisible Pandora explained. In the third round, Tedd's opponent was Rich, who was uncertain whether Tedd were a hot girl he should hit on or a deceitful guy trying to trick him. It didn't help that Tedd suddenly did turn into a girl, due to an unconscious use of a magic mark Pandora had placed on him. Sarah faced Larry, who tried the same routine on her as he had on Tedd in round one, but she gave him a stern talking-to, trying to make him change his ways. When he didn't get it, however, she concentrated on the game and eventually won -- as did Tedd, though luckily quicker. Grace talked to Justing, explaining him the concept of change blindness ... and also showing him how she plays with it by changing breast size and height, which Justing totally overlooked. Dex showed up and talked with Grace, who was manning the counter, and she got the same feeling from him as from Rhoda and Justin earlier. This time, it triggered memories of her dream and since she knew he had a magical mark she realized that it actually might point to something real. Thus, when she learned that Tedd had changed sex without meaning to, she immediately thought of magical marks and they slipped away to the back room to do a thorough search. Eventually she found one on his head, under the hair. They decided to do some experiments to find out if it really did what they thought it would, and during those experiments Tedd realized that the "intuition" for magic he had thought he'd developed through extensive testing was actually an inborn ability to see and understand spells and enchantments . He tried to use this ability to verify whether Justin had a mark, as Grace's dream said he did, but by chance he happened to do this at the same time as Luke, standing close to the line of sight, used his ability on George to see if it was he who was the source of the blinding flash earlier. Thus, while Tedd couldn't tell if Justin had a mark, he became "one hundred percent certain that guy can" . Obviously, when the pairings of the final round were announced, Tedd was meeting Luke. SP - Final Battle Third storyline contains the final of the tournament ... and also Sarah arranging sort-of-date with Sam and Justin talking with Luke about magic and ALSO arranging date. As part of both, Luke checks Justin for magic marks and don't find any: Pandora, from spirit world, comments that it's because she already awakened him. And in last strip, Sarah is finding out she was marked. So A Date At The Mall Fourth storyline deals with Elliots date with Ashley ... but also with Nanase, Ellen and Diane solving some mystery. The date Nanase was heading from Playing With Dolls turns out to be another "Angels" mystery solving (yes, she calls that date ). Nanase returns to Charlotte (and Rhea's) place with Diane, ostensibly to solve another mystery, but possibly also to be with Ellen some place away from Elliot while he's on a date (or maybe to keep Diane away). The mystery involves a "mysterious, cloaked figure" that Charlotte has concluded can't be human due to a picture of the figure that clearly demonstrates that it is not shaped like a human being. So A Date - Part 3 Mr. Tensaided calls Elliot and informs him about the Griffin. Elliot transforms to Cheerleadra and tries to talk with her, but she tries to attack. Meanwhile, Charlotte's Angels finds that there are actually two figures, just in time Ashley calls them with the information. They realize that the Griffin is one of the figures and that they may be able to find the second one - which is exactly what Dame Tara (the griffin) is trying to do. Elliot evades until Ashley kick ball at griffin and tries to negotiate herself. New immortal - likely antagonist - appears and calls Elliot Elliot Dunkel. Apparently, he was misleading Tara into attacking Elliot. Helena and Demetrius, the immortals from France, also appears and helps convincing Tara Elliot will help her. So A Date - Part 4 Dame Tara meets with Elliot and Ashley and Nanase, Ellen, Diane and Charlotte on parking lot. When they arrive, Tara is shocked by the strength of Nanase's magical aura; Tara has never met humans as powerful as Nanase apart from the royal line that rules her world's human population, and is surprised to find that Nanase is not a member of a royal family herself. Nanase's group lays out a description of the area in which the other griffin is likely to be found. The combined group agrees to head to a nearby clock-tower that Andrea (the other griffin) is likely using as a visible landmark. Elliot and Tara are to fly there, while the rest of the group drives. So A Date - Part 5 Nanase attempts to persuade the group that she and Nanase should travel in separate cars, since she and Ellen are the only two people arriving by car who have the power to defend themselves if attacked by a magical being. Diane refuses to cooperate, and Ellen attempts to convince Nanase that she is worrying over nothing. The two wind up driving with Ashley, and are cut off from the other car (containing Diane and Charlotte) by a train. Nanase begins worrying yet again, but is convinced to let it go by Ellen. When Nanase, Ellen and Ashley arrive, they discover that Diane and Charlotte were attacked by a spider-like aberration. The two griffins destroyed it before Nanase and Ellen could arrive, but it pulled out bombs that Tara had had to throw into the sky rather than being able to defuse them. The group hastily disperses on the (mistaken) belief that the bombs will draw attention. Elliot and the griffins head into the forest so that Andrea can explain the situation to the best of her understanding. Ashley calls Elliot with her cell-phone, and Elliot's Cheerleadera form results in only Elliot being able to hear Ashley. Elliot and Ashley agree to hang up the call due to the confusion this is causing, and Nanase eventually casts the fairy-doll spell in order to attend in her place. Andrea explains that they are from other half of the same universe and that she was investigating energy clog which happened on their half. This is the other side of rising levels of ambient magic in Moperville. She didn't actually find anything new on this side, but she killed six vampires, not counting the aberration Tara finished. Elliot and Nanase offer to relay the information to people who can help - likely Tedd and Edward Verres - and the griffins agree to contact them again at the same spot in four weeks. Tara is sure she can find the spot again, but Elliot is not so sure he or Nanase can. Nanase points out that Elliot has demonstrated that his form has merged him with his cellphone, which has a GPS app. After a second of not being sure how to access the app in his current state, Elliot does so mentally. While Elliot is flying to Charlotte's place, he realizes how much he really likes the superhero form, including the facts it makes him cute and sexy. Embracing it like that is apparently enough for magic giving him another spell. References Category:Story arcs